'This has to work': last chance for charities to clean up fundraising | David Brindle

If self-regulation fails to halt questionable practices, more draconian steps could be next, warns the Institute of Fundraising

If self-regulation by charities of fundraising is in the last-chance saloon, as we are often told, they are cautiously ordering another round.

From April, the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) plans to introduce an accreditation scheme to vouch for the training and behaviour of fundraisers employed by the biggest charities and agencies.

“Absolutely this has to work,” acknowledges Peter Hills-Jones, the IoF’s director of compliance. “Because if it doesn’t, the public and the government aren’t going to have any more patience.”

His remarks signals the awareness that charities have jeopardised, if not necessarily lost, a great deal of goodwill as a result of recent revelations about questionable fundraising practices. Some regulatory changes have been made, but the sector is very much on probation and risks more draconian intervention if it fails to show that it has put its house in order.

Hills-Jones believes people feel strongly protective of long-established charities and are passionate about any damage to the causes they promote.

“If we can turn that passion into convincing people we have changed, then the British people are nothing if not fair-minded and will give [us] a second chance,” he says.

The new accreditation scheme is expected to apply to 15 big charities with their own in-house fundraising teams and 25 fundraising agencies that work on behalf of other charities. It will cover telephone and street fundraising, including on private sites such as shopping malls and railway stations.

Accreditation will comprise an initial desktop exercise, observation of training and public engagement and, following a decision, any remedial work judged necessary to win approval.

The IoF does not intend to name and shame any charity or agency that fails the assessment, but to publish a list of those accredited successfully so that the public, or, more pertinently, says Hills-Jones, journalists and others with knowledge of the sector, will be able to identify any charities trading without the institute’s stamp of approval. Hills-Jones considers it “almost inconceivable” that any board of trustees of a larger charity would sign off a contract with a fundraising agency that was not accredited.

Proposals for the accreditation have been put to the IoF’s 6,000 individual members and 600 member organisations. More than 90% of responses have been positive.

In observing fundraising practice, the new system will make more use of the IoF’s existing mystery shoppers to check on street fundraisers. For telephone fundraising, the organisation plans to ask charities to share the call sampling they routinely do themselves or by arrangement with their agencies.

Hills-Jones says there are no present plans to check on door-to-door fundraising practice. He acknowledges that some people might not like the practice, but says the IoF has not come across “significant concerns” in its discussions with local authorities and the police.

The accreditation scheme is only the latest response to the fundraising controversies that broke in 2015. It follows creation of the Fundraising Regulator, which has taken responsibility for the profession’s s code of practice. A revised code is expected to be issued shortly for consultation.

A new fundraising preference service will also be launched later in the year, enabling people to opt out of communications from some – but not all – charities.

Hills-Jones stresses that the accreditation initiative has been pressed for by IoF members. “There is a sense of frustration from many fundraisers that all they have been talking about for the last two or three years is regulation, breaches of compliance and so forth.

“They want to get back to their day jobs, what they are good at, which is raising money for good causes.”

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Contributor

David Brindle

The GuardianTramp

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